Luke 1.38 records I am the servant of the Lord; let this happen to me.

Mary was able to receive God’s work for her life because she defined herself as a servant of God.

Perhaps this attitude explains why so little is done for the glory of God today: so few who call themselves Christians define themselves as servants of God.

The difficulty in seeing ourselves as servants is the cost for being a servant, it is not easy to serve God and the cost can be very high.

Mary risked death for death by stoning was the consequence for being pregnant and unmarried. She nearly lost her husband had not God encouraged her fiancé to go ahead with the marriage despite Mary’s prenuptial pregnancy. No doubt Mary was despised, slandered and ignored by the more ‘righteous’ in her village, a cost few of us would want to pay.

Great assignments usually have great costs but it is in these assignments that we find life for they prove Jesus’ words that unless we lose our lives we don’t ever find them.The soldier, the fireman and the police officer know this truth as they often risk their lives on assignment for the benefit of others.

The most rewarding and effective work for God is that which costs us the most: even our very lives.

Today we accomplish so little because we are willing to pay so little.

We want to serve God a little after serving ourselves first but this leads to little done for God and little life with God.

Jesus commanded those who would be His followers to deny themselves, take-up their cross and follow Him, then they would know life abundant – the life God intended for us to live.